Priorities
by BlackEyedGirl
Summary: If there was a fire what would you save? Fluffyish cast ficlet. SamToby friendship and JoshDonna hintings.


Category: General/Friendship 

Summary: 'If there was a fire what's the first thing you would save?' Cast ficlet with a bit of Josh/Donna shippyness and Sam/Toby friendship

Spoilers: Nothing specific. References to a few S1 and S2 episodes for the eagle-eyed but nothing serious. Set mid S2 I think but it doesn't matter really. 

Disclaimer: The West Wing is not mine but remains the exclusive property of Aaron Sorkin et al.

A/N:  Just a random ficlet for an idea that wouldn't go away. Old West Wing episodes do that to me sometimes. Especially at 4 a.m. …Feedback would be most appreciated, as this is only my second posted fic. No flames! 

'You're kidding me! Matt Perry?' Josh's exclamation was loud enough to disturb anybody in the near vicinity. As this only included Sam, Toby, CJ and Donna, who were more amused by his hysteria than anything else, this didn't matter.

'One person with you on an island and you pick Matt Perry?'

'He's cute, he's funny…' Donna grinned, 'he doesn't go that strange shade of purple…'

'Remind me again why I invited you?'

'Firstly, you didn't invite me so much as order me. Secondly, you did this because you decided that if you had to stay and watch the votes come in I had to be tortured as well.'

'Ok…new game. If there was a fire, what's the first thing you would save?' CJ looked up.

'From our apartments? Because considering our tendencies to live in the office, and considering it's past midnight and we're all still here that might be a better question Joshua.'

'Fine, and notice my deep sigh there Claudia Jean, if there was a fire in your office, a localised fire the Secret Service somehow managed to miss, what would you save? One item.'

'Gail of course.' CJ threw a smug smile at Josh. 'You think I'd leave the poor thing to be fried?'

'I don't know…a little lemon, a little tartar sauce…' He turned to stare at Toby and Sam in turn, the men either side of him having groaned at the last comment. 'What?'

'Cliché.' Sam answered.

'Every time someone mentions the death of a fish, lemon and tartar sauce are mentioned.' Toby fixed a glare on Josh. 'Can we try to at least be a little original?'

'You two are insane, you know that? It's ten past twelve on a Friday night, we're stuck in the office and you're worried about my use of cliché? Man am I glad I'm not a writer!'

He glared at the smirks around the table.

'What?' Donna smiled reassuringly.

'Nothing at all. Just agreeing with you.'

'For that Donnatella you can answer next.'

' Ummm…my ski book.'

'Your what?' CJ asked.

'A Christmas present from Josh.'

'You keep that here?' Josh looked genuinely surprised.

'Just to remind me why I don't hit you more often.' But she tempered this with a smile and a softened tone prompting a smile in return.

CJ shot Toby an 'I told you so' look before turning to Sam.

'Ok Spanky, your turn.'

'My copy of the first State of the Union.'

'Not to trivialise your choice Princeton but aren't there like a million copies of that out there?' Toby asked 

'Yeah…but none of the others are the first final copy. Or signed by everyone that worked on it from the President down.' There was a brief silence before Donna responded.

'Sam, are you trying to create a collection to sell on eBay?'

'No!' He looked around indignantly. 'It's for me, so years from now I can show my grandchildren a signed copy of a Presidential address that I helped write.' He trailed off muttering to himself about mercenaries and philistines.

Josh grinned at the quiet ramblings.

'Me now? Well it's a difficult call; there is of course the coffee-stained memo that is the only evidence of the time my charming assistant brought me coffee. But no, it'll have to be the picture of my grandfather and me on my wall.'

This stopped Donna's outraged comment and provoked a look of sympathy instead which he shrugged off with another quick smile.

'Toby?' CJ tried to get the speechwriter's attention. 'We won, we know this already.'

'Hmmm?'

'Fire in your office Toby. What would you save?' One eye still on the television he answered:

'Sam.'

'What?'

'Sam if you looked up and saw that my office was on fire what would you do?' 

'Run out into the bullpen, yell at someone to call 911 and then try and get you out.'

'Exactly.' Toby turned to CJ. 'I guarantee, if my office caught fire, within 30 seconds the most valuable thing in it would be him and his white horse.'

'You can be curiously sweet sometimes Toby.'

'Rest assured its only because I don't have the patience to train another deputy.' He looked around to find knowing smiles on three of the other four faces. The fourth still looked shocked but then smiled brightly and mouthed a quick thank you at him. There was a warm feeling of camaraderie in the room until:

'Now Toby…isn't knight on white horse another example of the cliché you warned me against?'

'Shut up Josh.'

A/N 2: Yes I am aware Josh is unlikely to suggest a question regarding fire but I'm mired in S4 over here and I just wanted to try a happy, Sam-friendly ficlet. Did it work? Once again I direct you to the review button. Please? 


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